Welcome to the PokéCommunity!

Hi there! Thanks for visiting PokéCommunity. We’re a group of Pokémon fans dedicated to providing the best place on the Internet for discussing ideas and sharing fan-made content. Welcome! We’re glad you’re here.

In order to join our community we need you to create an account with us. Doing so will allow you to make posts, submit and view fan art and fan fiction, download fan-made games, and much more. It’s quick and easy; just click here and follow the instructions.

ok i have a question that has been bugging me alot
ash has been to every region yet he rarely catches alot of pokemon why

i mean ash should at least have all pokemon of one region

and another question is how come ash has no legendary pokemon. he sees them alot and helps them but he has yet to get one after all his travels . yet he has faced tobias who has two and faced others who have some how come ash has none

and finaly how come ash only cataches water, grass, flying
he barely has any other times. he has some but not alot
he doesnt have a true flying dragon type or another electric.. why

I don't see how he should have all the Pokemon of one region lol. He just doesn't catch every Pokemon he see's because it would probably become too much for him to train or something. Because usually when Ash encounters legendary Pokemon they are in movies, which don't follow the storyline. And because usually the legends he encounters are guardians or the area he finds them in and such. And maybe he doesn't want a huge powerhouse legend on his team.

He likes to have his team diverse through the regions, normally that has him not having any/many duplicate types. Pikachu is always with him thus him not catching anymore electric types.

If Ash caught all the pokemon in the region would he really use them that often? Much less would they get any development? Ash has a 10 pokemon rotation and even pokemon like Unfezant, Leavanny, Palpitoad, Boldore do get adequate screen time much less development. The reason I see he doesn't have all the pokemon is 1. His companions, rivals, and reoccurring characters need pokemon and development and they could get better showcasing with other characters not named Ash.

Legendary pokemon would be broken. Only in instances where he would have to go up against people like Trollbias or Brandon would I find Legends useful. I'd rather see him in the form of befriend one and using it like Noland did with Articuno. Which Ash may eventually do with Meloetta.

The reason Ash catches Grass, Fire, and Water. Is cause they set the trend of at least 1 Starter per region(most of the time multiple excluding Hoenn). So he is bound to have one of the three. If not the writers seem to fill him with another pokemon for a starter such as Corphish, Torkoal, Buizel. As for the Flying type it seems we are stuck with the regional bird every generation so that is why we have Pidgeot, Noctowl, Swellow, Staraptor, Unzfezant.

Are you saying Flying/Dragon in the same or different? Cause he has a Dragon in Gible. And he has other Flying types in Charizard and Gliscor. And Butterfree (who is also secondary Flying). As for another Electric I dunno, they probably felt like staying with Pikachu and just giving Pikachu clones to companions i.e. Pachirisu to Dawn & Emolga to Iris. Then giving rivals Gary and Paul Electivires. Would I like him to have another Electric yes, but that said if they are adequately featured like Paul Electivire was then I am find with it showcased in the way it was without Ash being the owner.

I'm more anticipating Ash getting a Psychic, Ghost, and Steel as he has never had any of those types. Otherwise he has had every type at some point in his journeys.

I think it would be too convoluted if he caught so many Pokemon. Each Pokemon he has serves an important purpose for the story in one way or another. If he caught hundreds more Pokemon, they wouldn't be able to even do anything with 70% of them anyway! I still don't think all 30 of his Tauros have made any appearances! xD

Plus, I think it would be kind of cheap if he had a Legendary to use. I mean, he's a pretty powerful battler, imo, to begin with, without their help. He already gets to work alongside them to save people, Pokemon, and even the world, so he's probably happy with that! Not to mention he's had memory of some Legends erased from time to time.

And lastly, most of those Legendary Pokemon became friends with Ash. If you began to trust a human, how would you feel if suddenly he began throwing balls in your face? See what I mean? ;; Either way, I think he's doing fine so far. I feel sorry for him in the tournaments though...

__________________

"Death is not to be feared, for it is the one thing we all have in common...."
==Scyther, The Quest for the Legends, The Cave of Dragonflies

Hallo, peoples! This is BetaNights!
I have a few Let's Plays under my belt so far. My Pokemon LPs including (but never limited to) Pokemon White Version and Pokemon Colosseum! :D I hope you enjoy~

ok here we go
as far as having too many pokemon and not using all of them. ash is not even using all his pokemon
yes gib is a dragon but when i think of dragon i think flying he doesnt have that yet..
second yes charizard is fire but guess what he isnt realy ashes any more cuase charizard is with all the other charizards

also as far as what all of you say on legendary thats bull seriously he has been in every region and area . he wants to be the best yet he doesnt have one after all he has seen, meet, and become friends with. he should at least have one if not now then at least by the end of the series..

yes i understand why he has a water, grass, fire and such but how come he doesnt get pokemon types he doesnt have yet.

there are pokemon out there that are perfect for ash and his personality like axew and lavitar and such and yet he doesnt have them.

in every region he catches like 5 or 8 pokemon and he is done

if ash is so powerful like you say and doesnt need a super powerful pokemon how come he hasnt won any leagues yet please answer me that..

ok here we go
as far as having too many pokemon and not using all of them. ash is not even using all his pokemon
yes gib is a dragon but when i think of dragon i think flying he doesnt have that yet..
second yes charizard is fire but guess what he isnt realy ashes any more cuase charizard is with all the other charizards

also as far as what all of you say on legendary thats bull seriously he has been in every region and area . he wants to be the best yet he doesnt have one after all he has seen, meet, and become friends with. he should at least have one if not now then at least by the end of the series..

yes i understand why he has a water, grass, fire and such but how come he doesnt get pokemon types he doesnt have yet.

there are pokemon out there that are perfect for ash and his personality like axew and lavitar and such and yet he doesnt have them.

in every region he catches like 5 or 8 pokemon and he is done

if ash is so powerful like you say and doesnt need a super powerful pokemon how come he hasnt won any leagues yet please answer me that..

No, you're wrong, Charizard maybe at the valley but it is still Ash's Pokemon. Like Squirtle being off in the Squirtle Squad, it is still Ash's Squirtle.

I don't get it... you're saying that you want him to get a Dragon/Flying type? The only Dragon/Flying types are Dragonite, Salamence, Altaria and Rayquaza. Spoilers regarding why he won't get a Dragonite,

Spoiler:

Iris already has one

. Altaria and Salamence don't really seem like they'd be owned by anyone right now especially not Ash. Rayquaza is a legend, which takes us into the next part. I don't see how its bull? So what if he's been to every region, so has Gary, do you see him with legends. Nope. Ash catching legends would be overpowered and imo, stupid.

As for Pokemon he doesn't have yet, so what if there's perfect Pokemon for him? It would be boring if he and his Pokemon had matching personalities.

Because like Kenshin mentioned, if he caught a lot of Pokemon that would require a lot of screentime and development for them all. Something which even his old Pokemon (Tauros, Kingler, Glalie etc) haven't even got yet. So giving him more new Pokemon without giving screentime and development to the others would be pointless since we'd have a few Pokemon that have a lot of character development and a lot without it.

Because Ash doesn't use all his 'super powerful' Pokemon in all of his battles. He lost the first league because of Charizard's disobedience. His Johto match with Harrison was a perfect match, except for Harrison's Blaziken had been trained a little more than Charizard. And again in the Hoenn league, it was more or less a perfect match with the exception of Meowth having more energy than Pikachu. And don't even get me started on Sinnoh. That was unfair tbh, they should have made Trollbias get disqualified for using legends or something, but then again Ash did make it to the semi-finals.

as far as having too many pokemon and not using all of them. ash is not even using all his pokemon

Which is why I said an over abundance would be pointless if he doesn't utilize what he already has. Focus on what you do have and build on that.

Quote:

second yes charizard is fire but guess what he isnt realy ashes any more cuase charizard is with all the other charizards

Fire/Flying. And he can call on Charizard if he needed to like when he was facing Clair, the Silver Conference, or Battle Frontier. Only reason he hasn't appeared is cause the writers don't seem to want to use him as of the last few Sagas. Although he did appear in the Opening with many of Ash's other pokemon at Oak Ranch in the opening of Best Wishes S2.

Quote:

also as far as what all of you say on legendary thats bull seriously he has been in every region and area . he wants to be the best yet he doesnt have one after all he has seen, meet, and become friends with. he should at least have one if not now then at least by the end of the series..

Anyone can "want" to be the best that doesn't mean they are or that they will get a legendary. If they were going to go about giving him legendaries they wouldn't have they formula like they do where they reset him all the time as well as Pikachu.

Quote:

yes i understand why he has a water, grass, fire and such but how come he doesnt get pokemon types he doesnt have yet.

Cause the writers haven't got around to working in the last 3 types he has yet to get.

Quote:

if ash is so powerful like you say and doesnt need a super powerful pokemon how come he hasnt won any leagues yet please answer me that..

Dunno where someone said he was so powerful as at the end of the day it is determined by the writers whether they handle him with a Win in the league or a loss. And Ash does have Powerhouses he needs powerful pokemon to compete with great trainers. Charizard has defeated Articuno, Pikachu defeated Regice and tied with Latios, Sceptile defeated Darkrai. He has powerful pokemon that have defeated Legends in the past. It just seems the writers want to short change Ash and have some super trainer with a bunch of legends beat Ash. Which seems like lazy writing. At least when he lost to Harrison and Tyson it was reasonable.

i guess i can understand
i just find it annoying that he barely cataches any pokemon in each area and i find it more annoying that he always cataches the same time

another question that has always bugged me is how come most of his pokemon havent fully evolved i can understand pikachi

i guess i can understand what everyone means about the legendary but i just find it funny after all the legendary pokemon he has seen and helped he doesnt have atleast one .. do you think its possible that he might get one by the time the series and his adventure is finaly over.?

i guess i can understand
i just find it annoying that he barely cataches any pokemon in each area and i find it more annoying that he always cataches the same time

another question that has always bugged me is how come most of his pokemon havent fully evolved i can understand pikachi

i guess i can understand what everyone means about the legendary but i just find it funny after all the legendary pokemon he has seen and helped he doesnt have atleast one .. do you think its possible that he might get one by the time the series and his adventure is finaly over.?

Getting to the levels needed for evolution, (they do exist!) in the anime is a lot harder than the games I'd imagine. But then, a lot of his Pokemon are proud. Bulbasaur, Oshawott and Snivy spring to mind, I don't think they'll be evolving any time soon, or ever in Bulbasaur's case. But then you've also got to consider how strong they are. Tepig was quite weak so it took a while to evolve, Tranquil wasn't used as much so it didn't get any experience that it needed to evolve. (Up until the Gym battle). There's many reasons that have to be taken into considering when thinking about why they haven't evolved.

As for the legends, it's unpredictable. I mean, he probably won't considering they mainly only appear in movies. But I guess if the writers wanted to go down the 'Ash having a legend' path they can make him have Meloetta.

That annoys me as well, especially in Hoenn which I felt they could have did a lot more considering the fresh start he had. My thought is they have at least three companions so like you said give him 5-8. Then they give the two companions about the same so they can showcase several lines and not just have Ash as the main showcaser of the pokemon. Still I think he should catch more, but that is just me wanting to see pokemon I like in his stead.

Bulba refused, Squirtle I dunno why maybe they just never got around to it or felt it better to use him going to the Squirtle Squad remaining a Squirtle instead of a Wartotle Squad or even Blastoise. His Johto team I felt were not adequately trained as he tended to have Kanto pokemon relied on for an at least partial duration of the journey in Johto. Hoenn I thought they could have at least got a Crawdaunt out of it. Sinnoh I felt a step in the right direction he had two fully evolved starters for the first time. Unova he will end up with at least 3 fully evolved pokemon. Which I could easily see it as 5-6 depending on how they handle Palitoad and Boldore who could evolve at any time. And maybe they get Emboar as well.

Well the series will probably run for a long time so only time will tell. I sure who the writers have something good in store for him. But if they do I don't want it to be an overly relied poke. Just something to counter balance trainers like Trollbias.

Lets look it this way. If each region of the world had pokemon and someone was trying to "catch" them all. I would most likely take a lifetime to catch them all WITH trades and still may not catch them all. In a RL scenario. Im sure it is damn well near impossible to catch them all. Thats why they dont have "Gotta catch them all" anymore its probably, "Gotta see them all", even then a whole lifetime may not do it

I've skimmed over all the posts and I don't think anyone has explained it this way.
Now mind you, I haven't seen his catching practices in Best Wishes, but if you look around at my other posts you'll see I don't consider it usually when discussing past habits of Ash.

While there are many practical reasons for Ash to have few pokemon from the viewpoints of the creators and managing the show, he also has an in-story reason for this. Sinnoh did well in highlighting that all trainers have different ways in which they approach their pokemon and battling, though this was present even in the early series.
An example from Showdown at the Po-ké Corral, Ash mentions he hasn't seen Kraby in awhile when they are in Prof. Oak's lab. Gary takes special note on this, seeing that Ash doesn't switch out and vary his pokemon often. In Sinnoh, we see in the final 3 part battle between Ash and Paul that Ash uses the same pokemon that were defeated in an earlier 6 vs. 6 battle with Paul, instead of finding a better way to battle against Paul, who switched up his team and adopted some of Ash's techniques.

Ash's specialty as a trainer is bringing out a pokemon's strength through close and intense bonds. Rarely will you see Ash catch a pokemon because "he wants it/it's tough/I want more pokemon". He usually teams up with difficult, disadvantaged, or quirky pokemon who he has to gain their trust first, barring special circumstances. If he just caught as many pokemon as possible, he wouldn't be able to nurture the close bond that has become his training style. Once they become his friends and reach their highest potential, or their potential rests in the training of someone else, he doesn't have a problem letting them go because friends are forever. However, would he have been able to care and nurture the emotionally scarred Chimchar to his full amazing capacity if he was constantly catching and switching out pokemon? If he caught amazing legendaries he would never have to use his other pokemon in battle.

Catching few pokemon and working with them closely and emotionally is how Ash is unique as a trainer, so in-story, I think this is why he doesn't/shouldn't catch so many pokemon and legendaries. This also somewhat explains why he doesn't bring all his pokemon to new regions, as again, he would just keep using the strongest ones without having time to focus on new captures.

__________________

Lornami a.k.a NinaFreelance Illustrator
User since 2007

"You've got to make a statement. You've got to look inside yourself and say: What am I willing to put up with today?"
Arin Hanson

ok i have a question that has been bugging me alot
ash has been to every region yet he rarely catches alot of pokemon why

i mean ash should at least have all pokemon of one region

and another question is how come ash has no legendary pokemon. he sees them alot and helps them but he has yet to get one after all his travels . yet he has faced tobias who has two and faced others who have some how come ash has none

and finaly how come ash only cataches water, grass, flying
he barely has any other times. he has some but not alot
he doesnt have a true flying dragon type or another electric.. why

There has nothing that has been shown that pokemon legend or not parish because they are captured and not "free".

He likes a lot of pokemon, but that doesn't equate to his capturing them. Like Ash was trying to go on a catching spree in Viridian Forrest but he only got Caterpie and Pidgeotto. He was seen wanting a Weedle but the writers didn't allow it. So I think it is more about what they want for him which they write into his character.

He is given pokeballs and if that was an issue he could go to the mart and by new ones. Pokeball availabity I don't think has ever been an issue.

I never saw how Team Rocket would inhibit his capturing of pokemon. Especially now a days when they are seen few and far between.

The reason why he doesn't catch too many Pokemon is because the writers want to promote certain marketable Pokemon by giving them to main characters. That's why they always have a starter somewhere on their teams, because they are one of the main selling points of the franchise.

Even though Unova saw him rotating his team for the first time since Kanto it still had the more marketable members get more screentime.

The reason why he always gets a Grass/Fire/Water trio is so he can promote the starters (which I mentioned are the selling point and he catches at least one starter in every region) and in the case if someone other than Ash obtains the starter he catches another Pokemon to fill that void (Corphish and Torkoal in Hoenn, Buizel in Sinnoh). They always make the regional bird serve as his main Flying-type although he has had some non-bird-based Flying-types before (Charizard, Butterfree, Gliscor).

As for why he never catches a Legendary, it's because most of them appear in movies and if he ever caught one it would be too overpowered for him. He has befriended several Legendaries, including Mewtwo, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Latias, Shaymin, Azelf, Giratina, Arceus, Victini, Reshiram, Zekrom and Meloetta. The only time Legendaries would be useful is if he went up against trainers like Brandon and Tobias (aka Trollbias).

On the topic on why he hasn't caught any Psychic, Steel or Ghost-types yet, it could be a result of the writers looking at the Pokemon and they don't see it as a good fit for Ash. There were several droughts before Ash caught a certain type. In Sinnoh, he became the first main character to catch a Dragon-type (Gible) while Unova saw him catch his first Rock-type (Boldore) and also saw him getting the honor of the first main character with a Dark-type (Scraggy and Krokorok).

Ash also won't probably get a Dragon/Flying-type for several reasons. 1) Rayquaza is Legendary, 2) Iris caught Dragonite, 3) Salamence and Altaria were already shown with other recurring characters.

He won't get another Electric-type because of Pikachu. It's his mascot which will never, ever evolve.

And as Dragonomega said, his teams have diversity and he doesn't usually duplicate on certain types. In Unova, he has two Grass-types (Snivy, Leavanny), two Ground-types (Palpitoad, Krokorok), two Dark-types (Scraggy, Krokorok), two Water-types (Oshawott, Palpitoad) and two Fighting-types (Pignite, Scraggy). Although it's a bit redundant, the fact that their movesets are different sets them apart (such as Pignite having an almost all-Fire moveset). I didn't really like that the starters' movesets all consisted of moves of their own type (except Snivy's Attract).

__________________

And no reptiles!
Just soft boiled eggs in shirts and ties
Waiting for the flashing green man

i can understand everything you guys say but see the thing is
how come tobias and others can get legendary pokemon like dragonite , and latios and darkrai but ash cant

also how come ash does get any rare. i can understand why he doesn't have allot of pokemon. i cant realy understand why he doesn't have a legendary mainly because i know people say oh there are only one of each legendary but i doubt that. there is no proof that there is just one of each i mean lugia had a child so it stands to reason that there are more than one of each . so i cant really understand that but at the very least why cant he have a rare Pokemon.

also you say that he only catches so many so he can focus on the ones he has but he just abandons them all basically when he goes to the next area i dont get that..

as far as the leagues go i know you say its not that important but you would think after all his travels he would be able to atleast win one league and bet the elite four once and be a champion

Because Tobias was a big fat cheater. :|
But really, he was cheap story reason to why Ash wouldn't win the Sinnoh league. I don't think it would have hurt him to win, but the writers needed him to scoot on to Unova.

Quote originally posted by Astorath:

also how come ash does get any rare. i can understand why he doesn't have allot of pokemon. i cant realy understand why he doesn't have a legendary mainly because i know people say oh there are only one of each legendary but i doubt that. there is no proof that there is just one of each i mean lugia had a child so it stands to reason that there are more than one of each . so i cant really understand that but at the very least why cant he have a rare Pokemon.

He has a shiny Noctowl? That's rare. He's just not a connoisseur of rare pokemon? All the legendaries he meets are in the middle of doing important things, why does he need to catch them? I've already said that he doesn't catch pokemon because he just feels like it or wants a lot. There is no reason for him to catch a legendary, story or personality wise.

Quote originally posted by Astorath:

also you say that he only catches so many so he can focus on the ones he has but he just abandons them all basically when he goes to the next area i dont get that..

He trains Pokemon so they can reach their potential. Once they get there, using them over and over would not let him interact with any other pokemon afterwards. So they go off to do something they are better at or need to do or find something to do at Prof. Oak's. Except Pikachu because he never counts.

Quote originally posted by Astorath:

as far as the leagues go i know you say its not that important but you would think after all his travels he would be able to atleast win one league and bet the elite four once and be a champion

He won the Orange Islands. He finished the Battle Frontier challenge. You have to remember, there are many other trainers that have been traveling just as long as him or longer. Where are they? Paul is confirmed to have been just as far as Ash has, so wouldn't he also have the same right to become Champ? It means that winning leagues doesn't make you a Champion, or even eligible to take the Elite Four challenge, if that even exists in the anime. When you have full grown adults that are still traveling trainers it means it's going to take awhile. (Extra Note: You can also argue that a Pokemon Master and Pokemon Champion are not on the same route.)

Also pre-warning DON'T bring the game protags in this, we already know the games and anime work on really different levels. I'll fight that argument if you want, but eh.

__________________

Lornami a.k.a NinaFreelance Illustrator
User since 2007

"You've got to make a statement. You've got to look inside yourself and say: What am I willing to put up with today?"
Arin Hanson

Because Tobias was a big fat cheater.
But really, he was cheap story reason to why Ash wouldn't win the Sinnoh league. I don't think it would have hurt him to win, but the writers needed him to scoot on to Unova.

The end of Sinnoh was rushed. Its almost as if the writers wanted Ash to win it but then they got BW tossed at them and they did not seem to know and by the time they did know it was too late for some of the ideas they had to work. I mean if you look at the last 20 eps of Sinnoh you can see how its rushed compared to the rest of the DP series.

The PokéCommunity

Meta

Pokémon characters and images belong to The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo. This website is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK, or The Pokémon Company International. We just love Pokémon.